A forum for discussing matters of moment, from a curmudgeonly perspective. (The ideas posted here do not necessarily represent those of any organization with which I am a part). Rude and insulting remarks will not be published, but civil disagreement is welcome.

Wednesday, February 06, 2013

The United States of Europe? No!

Daniel Hannan, The New
Road to Serfdom: A Letter or Warning to America. New York: HarperCollins, 2010. 200 pages,
with index, $24.99. Reviewed by Douglas Groothuis.

Christians,
as salt and light in society, should be deeply concerned about the moral and
political direction of their nation (Matthew 5:13-16). As Jeremiah said, God’s
people should seek the welfare of the city to which they are exiled (Jeremiah
29:7; see also 1 Peter 1). Although we are “exiles” on earth before God restores
all things (Revelation 21-22), we are still called to cultivate and develop the
creation (Genesis 1:26) as well disciplining the nations according to Jesus
Christ’s matchless teachings (Matthew 28:18-20). Part of the Christian’s duty
as both a citizen of heaven and of earth is to gain the best possible insights
into the history, meaning, and possibilities for one’s own nation. In this,
Daniel Hannan can help us immensely.

While
on the floor of the European Parliament in 2009, Hannan eloquently denounced
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s liberal policies. A video of his performance
went viral on the Internet, thus acquainting millions of Americans to a
principled and courageous politically conservative voice from England.
Although Hannan does not wax very theological in this short, crisp, and
insightful book, his warning to America
is deeply rooted in the Judea-Christian tradition. Perhaps the most telling
theological comments Hannan makes sums up the genius of this tradition: “it
needs to be remembered that Man is fallen” (10). Knowledge of this truth
protects civil governments from utopian aspirations and the statist
superstition that human nature can be regenerated by political effort.

Hannan’s thesis is
that with the election of Barack Obama as President in 2008, America has moved radically toward
European political ideals and therefore away from its founding heritage. Hannan
warns that “The United States is Europeanizing its health care system, its tax
rates, its day care, its welfare rules, its approach to global warming, its
foreign policy, its federal structure, its unemployment rate” (xvi). By so
doing, we are risking the integrity of our unique identity in the world.
“Europeanization is incompatible with the vision of the founders and the spirit
of the republic. Americans are embracing all the things their ancestors were so
keen to get away from: high taxes, unelected bureaucrats, pettifogging rules”
(118).

Like many British
writers, Hannan possesses an urban wit and an astute sense for history. He
convincingly argues that America’s
founding ideals were largely borrowed England,
the very nation America
revolted against in 1776. Many Englishmen did not support the war, and it was
not fought with great determination. Further, England
generally embraced America
after the war, and the United States
and England
have been strong military allies through the years. For these reasons, Hannan
feels a keen kinship with America,
and desires that it stay true to its founding ideals.

The American
difference rests in a brilliant and sturdy constitution which requires federalism
(a limited federal government that gives freedom to the states and individual
citizens), the separation of powers, and which ensures both rights and
liberties to its citizens. America’s
greatness should matter to everyone, argues Hannan, since “the promise of the
U.S. Constitution didn’t simply serve to make Americans free. It also drove
your fathers to carry liberty to other continents” (118). If America loses
its exceptionalism, the whole world suffers.

Hannan has
in-depth experience with both British politics and that of the European Union,
a multi-national bureaucracy that has little respect for the popular will of
the citizens of its constitutive states, which favors socialist welfare state
over liberty, prosperity, and opportunity, and which mandates “global
governance” and supra-nationalism over the sovereignty of individual nations.
In a particularly profound chapter called, “Don’t Copy Europe,” Hannan warns
that we should not copy Europe’s model of the
centralized, command economy, given its excessive regulations, inability to
motivate workers and produce new jobs. Nor should we Europeanize health care,
given the abysmal record of England’s
inefficient and bureaucratically sclerotic socialized system. We should shun the
European model of welfare as well, since it makes no distinction between the
deserving and undeserving poor, undercuts responsibility, and generates
resentment. Our sense of society should not be inspired by Europe
either, because “as the state has expanded, society has dwindled” (100).
Functions traditionally given to families—such as health, education, day care,
and the provision for the elderly—are assumed by the state. “So, it is perhaps
no surprise that the family itself, in Europe,
in is decline” (101). Europe’s recent record
on immigration and its abandonment of federalism is equally undeserving of
imitation.

Americans should
aspire to something far better than serfdom. Hannan can help teach us how. Let
Christians listen and learn and act accordingly.

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About Me

Nothing on this blog represents the position of Denver Seminary. I am a Christian, philosopher, teacher, writer, and preacher, who is Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary. My most recent of my eleven books is Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith (InterVarsity Press, 2011). I have published ten others, including Truth Decay and On Jesus. I direct the Christian Apologetics and Ethics MA program at Denver Seminary.